PlanSmart NJ President to Assist Report to U.S. Congress
Dianne Brake, president of PlanSmart NJ, has been appointed to a national committee charged with drafting a report to U.S. Congress in the spring of 2009 on the relationship among development patterns, vehicle miles traveled and energy use. The committee was established in the National Academy of Sciences by a section of the 2005 energy bill and will be staffed by the Transportation Research Board and paid for by the Department of Energy. Smart Growth America is credited with advocating for this committee to be established.
The Committee is comprised of a number of noted authors and prominent academics, including Robert Cervero of University of California at Berkeley and Anthony Downs of the Brookings Institution, author of Stuck in Traffic and Still Stuck in Traffic. The Committee is chaired by noted Harvard professor Jose Gomez-Ibanez.
Dianne and Portland Metro Director of Planning Andrew Cotugno are the only planners and non-academics on the committee. A director in the Federal Highway Commission, who has followed PlanSmart NJ's work for more than 20 years, said that he had nominated Dianne because he wanted to make sure “someone would be on the committee who really knew something about land use and transportation in the real world.”
Dianne returned from her first meeting in Washington determined to set up a group of New Jersey advisors to discuss with her the issues raised during the course of the appointment. She has already identified for the advisory group people in NJDOT, NJ Transit, and other specialists, as well as representatives of development and environmental interests. It is her intention to use the discussion in her advisory group to enhance her contributions to the Committee and to influence the direction of the deliberations and final report to Congress. For more information, contact PlanSmart NJ at: info@plansmartnj.org